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Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

bbc.com

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Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#481

Post by adossi »

roguecoder wrote: post #437
adossi wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The title of the article reveals a lot about the biases at play here. "Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind..." - keyword 'the'. She isn't 'the' computer scientist behind it, she is 'a' computer scientist behind it. If it were merely a case of putting an interesting person with likable facial features at the heart of the story the news articles' titles and descriptions could actually be accurate. In actuality…

The fact that you are making it about her appearance instead of her scientific achievement is you, my dude, not the article and not the media. She is first author, she came up with the algorithm, she did this thing, and all your attempts to belittle that just prove Joanna Russ’ absolute correctness.

Actually her appearance is relevant to the discussion at hand, within the context of this specific thread. There is no belittling going on here.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#483

Post by fzeroracer »

dalemyers wrote: post #44

I've read comments on Hacker News for many years, often finding them a useful source of additional information and insight into details from whatever the linked piece is. Sometimes these threads are full of only subtly veiled hatred and leave me with a feeling of disgust. This thread is one of those. There have been countless threads over the years where a man gets the credit for something a team has worked on and th…

HN seems to have an unfortunate problem where any time women are promoted in tech it creates incredibly toxic threads with lots of thrashing and gnashing about how unfair it is.

One needs to just look at another large thread that generated controversy to get an idea of the growing trend [1].

Which means one has to ask themselves: Is HN cultivating an environment that's only going to get worse? And personally, I think the answer would be yes.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19464269

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#484

Post by bubblewrap »

Tehchops wrote: post #395
bubblewrap wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the personal life experience of a male doesn't count for anything? THAT is what I would call the actual toxic attitude. What makes women unable to have male role models, but men able to have female role models? Is there a difference between men and women, then? Is that what you are saying? By that logic, why shouldn't I as a man say "fuck women in STEM", because apparently we will never be able to communicate abou…

>So the personal life experience of a male doesn't count for anything? THAT is what I would call the actual toxic attitude. Ah yes, the classic: "I'm not toxic, you are!". Where in my original comment did I say the male perspective, anecdotal as it may be in a given context, counts for nothing? I didn't. What I did say was that a singular, anecdotal male perspective was not appropriate as a justification for depictin…

You twist all the words - I suspect you are not really reading, just rerunning your stereotypes in your head.

I did NOT say desiring a female role model is toxic feminism. Feminists claiming women need female role models is toxic feminism. There is a difference.

And that is what feminists claim, because they need this claim to support their victim narrative of why fewer women are in STEM.

No point commenting your other stuff, because you completely misrepresented what I said.

And by the way, you directly called ME toxic, whereas I made a general comment about feminism.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#485

Post by bubblewrap »

hlurhhh wrote: post #452
bubblewrap wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What prevents you from taking a man as a role model?

(FYI I'm not directing this anger at you dude, it's generalized) what the fuck don't people understand about a woman wanting a woman role model? I got the same questions asked to me in the Marissa Mayer thread a day or two ago. Like yeah I got some male role models too, but fuck I want some representation! Someone who I can relate to! Someone who I know went through what I did!

"Someone who I know went through what I did!"

Which is what, exactly? What is so fundamental different abotu your experience? The immeasurable pain of being a minority in a group of people?

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#486

Post by seaborn63 »

streb-lo wrote: post #313

Serious question HN: If Katie was a man do you think people would be going through git histories and their published papers trying to determine if she is being over-credited for her achievements?

I am not a female, but I am a bootcamp grad with no college degree working as a sw engineer. At almost every place I've worked at so far I've had co-workers go through my GitHub and then make comments about how I shouldn't be working there.

I have no idea why people are doing this to Dr. Bouman, if it's gender related or not. Just stating my experiences.

Just so I'm fair, my GitHub does suck.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#487

Post by gsteinb88 »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #359

Slightly off-topic - is anyone able to identify the software used in this photo of the first time seeing the black hole? [1] https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190410153403-katie-bo...

Looks like matplotlib to me (assuming you mean the top window, not the terminal or what looks like a browser behind)

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#489

Post by sodafountan »

throc3 wrote: post #478
sodafountan wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't delete comments from hacker news after a certain period of time has passed and that's ok, I was wrong about the amount of work she committed and in all honesty, I didn't doubt her in any way. I looked up what she had contributed because I was curious and initially I didn't find much. I do apologize for not digger a bit deeper. I still stand by the fact that all people's work of this magnitude should be revi…

There are probably a dozen papers of this magnitude published each month across the sciences with multiple authors and github repos. Which of them have you dug into before? Any of them?

Considering how few I was aware of the answer is zero. Let me ask you something though, why was I made aware of this discovery and not the others?

Was it because a woman participated?

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#490

Post by araneae »

sodafountan wrote: post #489
throc3 wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are probably a dozen papers of this magnitude published each month across the sciences with multiple authors and github repos. Which of them have you dug into before? Any of them?

Considering how few I was aware of the answer is zero. Let me ask you something though, why was I made aware of this discovery and not the others? Was it because a woman participated?

Maybe because it's the first ever photo of a black hole, was widely anticipated, and was published by pretty much every news organisation and was on the cover of many of them, before any interviews with her came out?
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